Captain Alfredo Stocatto, the King's Gauntlet, earns his moniker day in and day out amidst the rural counties of the Kingdom of Vitania, squashing rebellions, rounding up heathens, and generally keeping a vice-like authoritative grip on the vast lands and discontented peasants for his young liege, King Giogi Utello. Unknown to the general populace, is that Captain Alfredo's harsh demeanor and reputation of brutality is merely a front. In reality, Captain Alfredo is secretly organizing a peasant revolt, and it is only a matter of time, before he deposes his unloved king.

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

The TherapistThe earliest deep space manned missions faced a great many problems, not the least of which was the sanity of the small crew that were locked in a vessel for years at a time. In the first few months of the mission a counselor would review the astronauts' journals and hold occasional "check in" therapy sessions. But as the deep space vessels went further and further from earth, communications grew far less frequent. To this end, an AI hologram called simply The Therapist was installed on the vessel. Any crewman could meet with The Therapist at their convenience with a push of a button. The program was displayed as a 30-something male or female (crewman's choice) dressed in a sweater and khakis with a calm, soothing voice. The AI is designed to analyze the crewmen's concerns and problems, then provide appropriate interventions. While most of these worked splendidly, a small handful had glitches that treated one crewman as another, revealing secret intentions and thoughts that were meant to be confidential. These sparked several incidents of breakdowns between crewmen on these vessels, sometimes resulting in violent outbursts.

Chief Petty Officer Rick "the Stick" O'DonnellRick O'Donnell is not tall. Neither is he skinny. He is a bit on the short side, rather unassuming and easily overlooked. However, he is quite skilled in Escrima and once broke up a bar brawl with nothing more than a single broken pool stick. With that reputation firmly established, he is often able to prevent fights with nothing more than a raised eyebrow.

Philip Gunnar, the King of BismuthAlso known as the Thunder God, the Prince of Ten Pins, or just Phil, Gunnar is a former professional bowler who settled down in the town of Bismuth, where he owns and operates a bowling alley. On a local level he is a typical upstanding member of the community, donating to the local sports teams and hosting fundraisers for local charities at his bowling alley. He is called the King of Bismuth because he has at various times sat on the city council, the school board, the zoning commission, and has almost won the position of Mayor, all without ever having run for any of those positions. In the movie of this, Gunnar would be played by Steve Buscemi

Basil Walpurgis Esq.A bourgeois upstart barrister, Basil Walpurgis made a name for himself as an outspoken defender of the common man. Walrus-esque with his corpulent torso, drooping mustachios, and profusely-sweating bald head, he is often seen in court railing against nobility and guilds for their perceived oppression of workers, peasants, and the growing middle class. Some say he should be tried for inciting rebellion; for others, he is a cause célèbre for social change

Alkon Ariston is unknown in finer circles, but both admired and reviled by those who know of him. He is an albino, tall and thin, with a long white mane. He is employed by a mining outfit to keep the workers in line. He always has the same grimace and hard look to his eyes. It is easy to fall afoul of him, which is why the workers have named him the "Black Constable." He is stronger than first appearance suggests and has been known to crack the skulls of men much bigger than him. He often wanders through the mine tunnels during work shifts, making certain that efficiency remains high and thefts are quickly punished. He once single-handedly laid low a dozen men who were attempting to flee through a hole they'd opened up in to the outside with a sack full of pilfered gems.

Max Ward, The Divine GlowrunnerMax Ward is the eponymous star of a series of movies about a secret agency which combats supernatural threats. The agents are informally called Glowrunners after a technique used in slaying creatures of the night. Max Ward is the stereotypical square-jawed and broadshouldered hero, referred to as the "Divine Glowrunner" by lonely housewives across the country.

Teresa Carter, Queen of ShadowsTeresa Carter is a thief extraordinaire. Teresa is neither a pickpocket nor an armed robber, and instead creeps into houses and takes the owner's belongings. The thing that sets her apart from the common thief? Teresa always steals during the daytime, and while the owner is at home. She has said that she does this because she "likes a challenge." It is to be noted that Teresa has never been caught- or seen- while on the job. Another quirk of hers? In exchange for the goods, a note is left, which tells the time of day she struck, and how she got in. It is said she writes it in the house she steals from.

Furgalgast "French" ThrenillagaragartFurgalgast is the stage name of... no one knows. He is always called Threnillagaragart onstage, though everyone has taken to calling him French, because it's just so much easier. Where he goes when he's off the stage is a complete mystery. He needs no dressing room, no dress rehearsals, no script. He appears, does his gag, and vanishes once past the curtain. He is a comedian, magician, and actor. The only connection he has to the outside world is a mysterious agent who responds only to mail sent to an impossible address.

What's cooler than cool? Murk is cooler than cool. Tom 'Renegade' is an action movie star, a pretty boy with Fabio hair and oiled pecs and biceps that he barely covers with a leather biker's vest. He rides a motorcycle, but can also ride a horse, and despite his willingness and ability to lay down righteous ass-beatings with his fists and silver heeled boots, he always has pillow talk and sensitive feelings for not just the damsel in distress, but the tough woman with the all business demeanor, and even the introvert who can't find within herself the ability to express herself and leave her abusive spouse for the muscular Renegade

Tom Murk might seem like just another Hollywood pretty boy, and in many ways he is, but the truth is much deeper.

Murk, hailing from the coast of Maine, is actually a Deep One. He is wearing a very powerful disguise, and has quite gotten into the role as a Hollywood movie star. His often odd personal mannerisms are waved off as just celebrity eccentricities, and his constant demands for all his filming sites to have a swimming pool of salt water is just a diva being a diva. As a leading action/romantic actor, Murk is steadily but surely impregnating as many of his female fans as possible.

Oh the surprise they will have when their little groupie spawn child starts growing gills...

Ol' Fishhook Morgan is something of a legend aboard the Tyger John, a merchantman and sometimes smuggling ship of ill repute. Stories abound of the old salt: that he was born of the sea and found on a rocky shoal by the Tyger John's first captain; that he held off half a crew of mutineers with nothing but a rusty harpoon; that he made it with a mermaid and has a half-dozen fish kids swimming somewhere at sea.

But the biggest story is how he acquired the leviathan skull that serves as the Tyger John's figurehead. The story goes that during a storm far out in the ocean, a sea beast rose up to harass the ship and try to sink her. Neither sword nor spear could pierce the monster's hide, but Morgan had a plan. He baited a dolphin fish with some of the ship's stores, then just as soon caught a great sea dog with the dolphin. Cutting the shark and letting it bleed, he hooked it to the ship's reef anchor and threw it overboard. The leviathan, attracted to the sea dog's blood, took the bait and seized the anchor. Morgan seized the winch and cranked it mightily, the ship lurching backward as the monster dragged it. But the beast was no match for mighty Morgan, who wrestled it for hours into days; by the time the fish knew what was happening, the anchor's flukes were too deep and it couldn't let go. The sea dragon eventually gave up, alive but exhausted and floating on its side. Morgan grabbed a cutlass and leapt onto its great head, looking the beast in the eye. It's said he whispered something to it that seemed to calm it - perhaps he even speaks the tongue o' the sea itself - before slitting its throat and finally killing it. The beast was cleaned and the stores filled with fresh meat, the carcass so large some of it had to be left to rot.

Zuzanna "Slugslinger" BaakAfter the Global Corporate Congress took power in the mid-21st century, pockets of resistance popped up to fight corporate rule: freedom fighters, terrorists, nationalist militias. While corporate militaries usually did the job, some resistance cells were too elusive to tackle without more intimate expertise. Zuzanna Baak is just such a person. A former ranking officer in the Dutch Vrijlaten movement, Baak became a turncoat when the money got too good and she got too tired of running. A crack mercenary, Baak is known for favoring old style cartridge weapons over more modern lasers and bio-weapons, earning her the Slungslinger nickname. She is hated as a collaborator in the European resistance circles, and even the Corporate Congress doesn't much like her: she's so sought after for her inside knowledge and skill, she's managed to stay independent when any other mercenary is put on lifelong corporate military contract.

Nathanael Halcyone, the PeacemakerWith his clean cut appearance, dapper vest, wire-rimmed glasses, and six-shooter strapped to his side, Nathanael is easy to pick out from the crowd of gold miners and farmhands in the Great Valley area. It's been said that he's sharper with his wit and his tongue than with his pistol but no one has been willing to face down that icy stare long enough to draw on him and find out. Although Mr Halcyone has never held an office, and flatly refuses to, he is the one folks come to when they have a dispute to sort out. He brooks no senseless violence and his judgements are always carried out, always without question.

George Plinth, the Flying MonkeyGeorge is a pilot (to type of aircraft doesn't matter, works just as well with biplanes as with starfighters) with a long and colored history of drunkeness, disorderly conduct, and introverted antisocial behavior. His appearance, short and pudgy like a tea pot doesn't help others impressions of him. When flying civilian craft, he is sloppy, and superficially a terrible pilot. Skilled aviators know better, his sloppiness is a form of stunt flying, much like a professional race car driver hang out the rear end of a minivan. He's not bad, he's so good he actually is doing things that should send the craft out of control and into a fiery crash. Why? Because the flying monkey is bored. He doesn't have the patience or interest in flying mundane, long hauls. Given a cutting edge aircraft, he is among the best fighter pilots in the world, able to take the machines to their limits and beyond. When he does get a military aircraft he will invariably vandalize it/graffiti it with the image of a flying monkey holding a contemporary rapid fire gun.